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Giulio Minniti – Scraping the Rust off Berezovsky’s Demofoonte
Scraping the Rust off Berezovsky’s Demofoonte
GIULIO MINNITI
Maxim Berezovsky (early 1740s–77) was the first Russian composer of European art music,
and, as such, merits a special place in the history of Russian music. However, his life is
shrouded in a lack of biographic information, and literature of past centuries has much
mythicized his figure, even to the extent of culminating the narration with a suicide—that
seems today dubious at the least.1
According to Marina Ritzarev, P.A. Smirnov (Maxim Sozontovich Berezovsky, 1841),
Nestor Kuklonik (Maxim Berezovsky, 1844), and Vera Zhakova (Maxim Berezovsky, 1932–36)
are the writers who mainly contributed to turning his biography into an hagiography. These
works contributed to forging the myth of Berezovsky in “the darkest, most chauvinistic
periods of Russian history, those of Nikolai I and Stalin, and appealed to Russian nationalism
at its worst.”2
What is certain is that Berezovsky spent more than a decade playing in operas at
Oranienbaum,3 and studying singing and composition in St. Petersburg. Since the imperial
capital of that time was full of Italian maestri, he had every opportunity to absorb Italian
music styles and features.
In 1769, he left St. Petersburg to pursue a career in Italy.4 We may understand from this,
that times were now ripe for Russians to take an active part in the Western musical tradition.
He settled first in Bologna, where he was permitted acceptance into the prestigious
Accademia Filarmonica directed by Padre Martini.5 Subsequently, resulting from his
connections with Count Alexsej Orlov (1737–1808),6 who was also a general in the military,
Berezovsky worked in the Tuscan cities of Livorno and Pisa.
It is probably safe to assume that Berezovsky’s first and only opera—notable because it is
the first Italian opera composed by a Russian—was staged chiefly for the Count’s amusement.
This opera was Il Demofoonte, based on a libretto by Pietro Metastasio. It was staged at the
Teatro di San Sebastiano in Livorno during the 1773 Carnival. By the winter of that same
1
* I wish to thank all the people that have helped me and collaborated through such an entangled
research: Profs. Federico Marri, Fulvio Venturi, Mario Corti and Vera Futer, the Russian Society for Music
Theory plus Marina Ritzarev and Yulia. Without the first I would have never had the necessary support,
competence and knowledge to end this article; without the latter, it would have never been started.
Marina Ritzarev, Eighteenth-Century Russian Music (Ashgate: Aldershot, 2006), 129-31. All
information on Berezovsky’s life has been taken from this monography, to this day the most updated and
authoritative.
Interestingly enough, Berezovsky’s death was used by the Russian filmmaker Andrej Tarkovsky as the
starting point for one of his most critically-acclaimed movies, Nostalghia (1983).
2
Ritzarev, Eighteenth-Century Russian Music, 3.
3
Araya’s Alessandro Nell’Indie in 1759 (Claudio Sartori, I libretti a stampa dalle origini al 1800, 4 vols.
[Cuneo: Bertola & Locatelli, 1994]: entry no. 779) and Manfredini’s Semiramide Riconosciuta in 1760 (entry no.
21576) are the two only stagings in which Berezovsky is openly mentioned in the cast.
4
Ritzarev, Eighteenth-Century Russian Music, 114-18.
5
Berezovsky’s admission exam is still kept in the Biblioteca della Musica di Bologna, I-Bc
MS.MARTINI.2.6(80). It is the same admission exam that Mozart also famously took, MS.MARTINI.2.6(2).
6
Orlov was stationed there with his fleet at the time of the Russo-Turkish war (1768–74).
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year, Berezovsky returned to St. Petersburg. He continued to compose music for the Russian
royal court and died in 1777, most likely because of ill health.7
The Demofoonte libretto by Metastasio gained immense popularity and, from its first
production in Vienna in 1733 (music by Antonio Caldara) until its last appearance (Venice
1795, music by Luigi Marchesi), it was staged at least 125 times all over Europe. 8 The Grove
Online entry states that “as a libretto, Demofoonte ranks in popularity with Metastasio’s top
six works, beside Olimpiade and second only to Artaserse and Alessandro nell’Indie.”9
The plot takes place in ancient Greece, revolving around Demofoonte’s (king of Thracia)
struggle to put an end to human sacrifice to Apollo in his kingdom. It makes full use of all the
entanglements that were so fashionable in late seventeenth- to mid-eighteenth-century Italian
opera, such as unexpected parenthood, and husbands and wives turning out to be brothers and
sisters.
Coming now to Berezovsky’s setting, there are three extant accepted sources:
1) Two articles in the February (1a) and November (1b) 1773 issues of Notizie dal Mondo
(News from the World).10 1a clearly states that Berezovsky’s Il Demofoonte was staged in
Livorno with great success; 1b reports that a Demofoonte was staged at the Teatro di via del
Cocomero in Florence, omitting the name of the composer. As I will shortly show, 1b was not
connected to Berezovsky.
2) The frontispiece of the Livorno libretto, a precious document, mentioned just about every
person involved in this staging, including the time—Carnival 1773—and the place, Teatro di
San Sebastiano. Robert Mooser discovered these details in a catalogue called Indice de’
teatrali spettacoli,11 an almanac that listed information about every Italian opera for that year.
It ran from 1764 to 1823, and it is an invaluable source for eighteenth-century Italian opera.12
3) The last and most important piece of evidence is the manuscript held in the Florence
Conservatory (I-Fc D-I. 207 Partit. ms. obl.). This manuscript contains eleven arias and two
duos. Four of the arias are from Berezovsky’s Demofoonte.
Past scholarship has inferred much—and rightly so—from these three points, but a further
investigation of available evidence and documentation shows faults in the musicological
approaches and conclusions, which need to be amended.
Firstly, the Demofoonte held in November at Teatro del Cocomero, of which Mooser found
mention in Notizie del Mondo (1b), was actually by Pasquale Anfossi, as the relevant entry of
the Sartori Catalogue shows.13 Ironically enough, the première of Anfossi’s Demofoonte had
7
Ritzarev, Eighteenth-Century Russian Music, 124-30.
8
9
10
Sartori: I libretti, Vol. VI, 289-90.
Entry by Don Neville.
1a) “Fra gli spettacoli rappresentati nel passato Carnevale, si è molto distinto quello dell’Opera in
musica, scritta dal Sig. Masimo Berezowskoy, Maestro di Cappella Russo all’attual servizio di S. M.
l’Imperatrice di tutte le Russie, soggetto, che al possesso della Scienza Musica riunisce la vivacità, e il buon
gusto”; 1b) “Nella sera v’è stata illuminazione al Teatro di via del Cocomero, ove si rappresenta con grande
incontro l’Opera Il Demofoonte.”
11
Robert Aloys Mooser (1876–1969) gathered a massive amount of evidence and material on eighteenthcentury Russian musicians, which resulted in the Annales de la musique et des musiciens en Russie au 18. siecle
(Geneve: Mont-Blanc, 1948–51, 3 vols.), an unmissable work for all successive scholarship on these matters.
12
See especially Roberto Verti, “The Indice de’ teatrali spettacoli, Milan, Venice, Rome, 1764–1823:
Preliminary Research on a Source for the History of Italian Opera,” Periodica Musica 3 (1985): 1-7. Free access
to the article at http://www.ripm.org/pdf/PeriodicaMusica/pm03.pdf (last checked 12 January 2016).
13
Sartori, I libretti, entry no. 7553.
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taken place in Rome the previous February, contemporaneously to Berezovsky’s one in
Livorno.
Extant sources for Anfossi’s opera are abundant. RISM lists more than sixty manuscripts; one
even reports the entire work.14 There is therefore little room to doubt Anfossi’s authorship of
the whole Florence Demofoonte. Given that no other composer is mentioned in any of these
sixty sources, even a pastiche with some hypothetical Berezovsky numbers inserted is out of
the question.
Georgy Keldish, referring to the November issue of Notizie del Mondo (1b), wrote that
although there is no mention of a composer’s name, one can with great probability suggest
that it was Berezovsky’s opera. It thus became clear why parts of his Demofoonte appeared in
the library of Florence conservatory. Mooser drew my attention to this newspaper article in
personal correspondence.15
However, now that Anfossi has been shown to be the only composer of the opera
mentioned by Notizie dal Mondo (1b), connections between the Florence Demofoonte staging
and the extant arias in the Conservatory manuscript cease to be tenable.
The second point to be rectified regards the Indice de’ Teatrali Spettacoli, which Mooser
was able to examine in a Milanese library. As she communicated to me, this got Marina
Ritzarev thinking that this catalogue referred specifically to operas staged in Milan. This is
not the case: this journal was edited in Milan prior to 1800, and Milan is the city where
Mooser consulted it. Thus, mention in this journal does not prove that the echo of
Berezovsky’s Demofoonte arrived in Milan.16
Finally: the crux of the “Demofoonte question”—the Florence manuscript. Earlier studies
on this question are flawed in that they limit themselves to Berezovsky’s connections and
biography. What was still missing was the deduction of objective evidence from the
manuscript itself, something understandably hard to obtain for a Russian musicologist, due to
the distance from Italy.
14
This particular source for the whole opera is now in the Santini Collection in Muenster, Germany.
Consulting it, however, was beyond my financial capabilities.
15
Georgy V. Keldysh, Ocherki i issledovania po istorii russkoi muzyki (Moscow: Sovetsky Kompozitor,
1978), 119. See also ibidem, 113-29. Passage and translation kindly provided by Marina Ritzarev.
16
Ritzarev, Eighteenth-Century Russian Music, 115-16.
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What follows is based on my personal evaluation of the manuscript in Florence, which
leads me to suggest a completely new interpretation of Berezovsky’s Demofoonte.
The volume is quite large, in the typical horizontal format of Italian music sheets:
approximately 27 x 15 x 7 cm. Apart from Berezovsky’s works, it contains other nine
numbers from different versions of the same libretto, all staged in 1773. Seven are by
Pasquale Anfossi (Rome, Teatro Argentina), and two by Niccolò Piccini (Rome, Teatro della
Valle).
Pagination is continuous, a very important detail proving the unity of the manuscript as a
whole and the idea behind it. Moreover, the paper is uniform in appearance throughout the
entire volume (in consistency, color, absorbency…): it probably came from a single lot. It is
quite robust, yet clearly cheap. There are no watermarks.
The manuscript is in good condition throughout, and there are no signs of wear or usage.
Mention of the year 1773 is very prominent, appearing in large characters on an initial leaf,
and well marked in the titles of each number.
Four different copyists worked on the manuscript. Surprisingly, yet somewhat predictably,
the copyist setting down Berezovsky’s arias did not also write numbers from other composers,
as copyists 1 and 3 do in writing music both from Anfossi and Piccini.
The volume comes from the archive of the noble Florentine Rinuccini family, about whom
not much is known. One of the owners inserted a higher-quality paper leaf that serves as an
index before the beginning of the actual volume. This single, smaller leaf bears a watermark
saying “AL MASSO,” the name of a place not far from Florence, where an important paper
factory was located. This sets the date of the index, if it is of any importance, as post-1783.
All Berezovsky’s arias were corrected with a pencil at the points where the original copyist
made mistakes, while the other arias show no sign of correction and/or checking.
Marina Ritzarev informed me that the editors of these arias worked on microfilms. So who
went to Florence specifically to check on Berezovsky’s music—who went all that way to
write on an eighteenth-century manuscript? Perhaps Mooser himself, or Sergei Diaghilev (or
one of his assistants), who was said to have had the idea of staging the opera?17
Table 1 Showing the information given for each number of the manuscript
Composer
Pasquale Anfossi
Type
Aria
Title
Pp
Misero Pargoletto 1-37
Pasquale Anfossi
Aria
Pasquale Anfossi
Aria
Pasquale Anfossi
Aria
Pasquale Anfossi
Aria
In te spero a [sic]
sposo amato
Odo il suono di
queruli accenti
Dall’affanno ho il
cuore oppresso
Per lei fra l’armi
Pasquale Anfossi
Aria
Pasquale Anfossi
Scena e
duo
Scena e
aria
Niccolò Piccini
17
38-77
78-117
118-145
146-185
Perfidi giacché in 186-217
vita
Sposo consorte
218-289
È giorno o notte
290-353
Ritzarev, Eighteenth-Century Russian Music, 116.
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Staged
Argentina
1773
Argentina
1773
Argentina
1773
Argentina
1773
Argentina
1773
Argentina
1773
Argentina
1773
Alla Valle
1773
Description
Aria del Sig.
Pasquale Anfossi
Aria del Sig.
Pasquale Anfossi
Aria del Sig.
Pasquale Anfossi
Aria del Sig.
Pasquale Anfossi
Aria del Sig.
Pasquale Anfossi
Aria del Sig.
Pasquale Anfossi
Aria del Sig.
Pasquale Anfossi
Scena del Sig.
Nicolò Piccini
Hand
1
2
1
3
1
1
1
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Giulio Minniti – Scraping the Rust off Berezovsky’s Demofoonte
Niccolò Piccini
Duetto
Vada fa ben così
354-421
Massimo
Beresovvskoy
Aria
Misero Pargoletto 422-445
Massimo
Beresovvskoy
Aria
Per lei fra l’armi
446-477
In Livorno
1773
Massimo
Beresovvskoy
Aria
Mentre il cor con 478-505
meste voci
In Livorno
1773
Massimo
Beresovvskoy
Aria
Prudente mi
chiedi
In Livorno
1773
506-535
Alla Valle
1773
In Livorno
1773
Scena del Sig.
Nicolò Piccini
Aria Misero
Pargoletto del
Sig.re Massimo
Beresovvskoy Russo
Aria Per lei fra
l’armi del
Sig.re Massimo
Beresovvskoy Russo
Aria Mentre il cor
con meste voci
del Sig.re Massimo
Beresovvskoy Russo
Aria Prudente mi
chiedi
del Sig.re Massimo
Beresovvskoy Russo
3
4
4
4
4
There are, however, some problems with dating the Piccinni staging. 18 The manuscript states
that it was presented at the Roman theater Alla Valle in 1773, but Sartori lists a Demofoonte
by Piccinni only in Reggio Emilia, central Italy, in 1761. 19 Nor does a highly specific
chronology20 of the Alla Valle Theater list any Demofoonte by Piccinni being held there. The
fact that the two Piccinni numbers were written by two different copyists further complicates
matters. Perhaps both take their dating from a previous—incorrect?—document? Or perhaps
there really was a 1773 staging—of which no evidence remains today?
Coming back to the manuscript enquiry in order to draw a conclusion, I suggest that the
key to its proper comprehension is the desire of a single person—perhaps an impresario—to
compile numbers from the most recent 1773 stagings of Demofoonte. This could lead us to the
conclusion that the finding of Berezovsky’s music in it is simply fortuitous. Maybe we would
not even have had these four arias if he had composed his opera a couple of years earlier or
later.
One last finding remains. The aria Mentre il cor is a re-working of an earlier aria by
Antonio Sacchini, who in turn copied (or, more likely, re-worked) an aria with the same lyrics
by Tommaso Traetta, apparently the first composer to have set the four Mentre il cor verses to
music.
This is why Mooser himself was not able to contextualize the aria in the standard
Demofoonte libretto, nor trace the origins of the lyrics21: Mentre il cor began as an
independent non-operatic composition by Tommaso Traetta. Even today, a search on Google
for the lyrics of Mentre il cor brings no significant results. Its author remains unknown, at
least to the extent of my knowledge.
Originally, Traetta wrote a parasacred work consisting of two parts, the first in Latin and
the second—Mentre il cor—in Italian. The only source for this piece is found in a library in
18
19
20
Nevertheless, this only marginally affects considerations on Berezovsky.
Sartori, I libretti, entry no. 7544.
Freely consultable at http://dhi-roma.it/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf-dateien/Online-Publikationen/
Grempler/ Chronologie_Teatro_Valle_III.pdf (last entry 12 January 2016).
21
Mario Corti, “La musica italiana a San Pietroburgo,” Philomusica Online, 4-1 (2005): n. 7. Freely
consultable at https://www.academia.edu/4859532/La_musica_italiana_nel_Settecento_a_San_Pietroburgo
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Prague. I contacted the library via e-mail but have received no response, and have not been
able to see the music.
Sacchini evidently knew this work, and decided to insert the second part of it in his opera
Artaserse (Naples, 1768). Until the manuscript in the Prague library can be accessed, it is
impossible to cast aside doubts whether Sacchini entirely copied or merely took inspiration
from Traetta.22
Finally, Berezovsky came to know Sacchini’s Mentre il cor thanks to Giuseppe Afferri,
tenor singer in both Berezovsky and Sacchini’s operas. 23 However, Berezovsky did not limit
himself to passively adding Sacchini’s piece in his play, simply confining the whole affair to a
“suitcase aria,” for which the singer was the only person responsible. In all likelihood,
Berezovsky saw the aria and decided instead to re-work it, perhaps with a feeling of positive
confrontation with the individual who was regarded as the most skilled and successful author
of Opera Seria.24
A comparison of the two arias is of particular interest, as it shows how Berezovsky
reshaped an earlier piece in his own way, granting an original hint at his writing style.
The lyrics greatly influence the overall structure of both arias:
Mentre il cor con meste voci
Mi palesa il duol che asconde,
La speranza al cor risponde
Che contento al fin godrà.
[While the heart with mournful voices
Discloses the grief that it hides
Hope reassures the heart
That joyful it will delight at last.]
The lyrics consist of a single quatrain of eight-syllable verses instead of the usual two
quatrains (with the second repeat for musical contrast); therefore, the arias correspondingly
lack the characteristic ABA form. Both composers repeat the lyrics four times. Key is C major
in Sacchini, D major in Berezovsky.
The following tables show how the two composers deal with the appearance of each of the
four statements.
Sacchini
Measure
Theme
Tonal Area
I Statement
II
III
IV
44
77
105
141
“A “
“B “
“A “
“C “
C Major
G Major
C Major
C Major
Harmony of the statement
in regard to the Tonal Area
C Major – Tonic
D Major – Dominant
F# diminished – Subdom.
C Major – Tonic
22
Bass note
C
D (pedal)
G (pedal)
C
However, in the Sacchini aria, there appear certain characteristic harmonic treatments that suggest a reworking of Traetta’s original. This is what the Antonio Sacchini entry in Grove online writes about his harmonic
style: “Sacchini’s harmony tends to be richer than that of most of his contemporary Italian opera composers, and
especially effective is his judicious use of diminished seventh chords, dominants of degrees of the scale other
than the tonic, and augmented sixth chords. He often achieved dramatic tension through the use of changing
harmonies over a tonic pedal point or with a sudden change from major to minor.” Almost all of this is to be
found in Mentre il cor, as will be shown later (entry by David DiChiera and Joyce Johnson Robinson).
23
Cf. Sartori, I libretti: entry no. 3062.
24
Ibidem
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Berezovsky
Measure
Theme
Tonal Area
I Statement
II
III
24
51
82
“A “
“B “
“A “
D Major
A Major
D Major
Harmony of the statement
in regard to the Tonal Area
D Major – Tonic
E Major – Dominant
A Major – Dominant
IV
106
“B “
D Major
D Major in 4-6 – Tonic
Bass
D
E (pedal)
G (seventh of A
Maj. chord)
A (pedal)
It is evident that Berezovsky chooses to maintain the overall organization set by Sacchini. The
most notable difference is that the former refuses to introduce a third theme, as does the latter
for the final statement. Berezovsky’s aria is also significantly shorter, accounting for some
thirty measures less (140 against 171).
Example 1 Sacchini’s Mentre il cor instrumental and vocal incipits
Example 2 Berezovsky’s Mentre il cor instrumental and vocal incipits25
25
Both composers actually ask for two oboes (in Sacchini the first is concertante), two horns and
strings. The reduction I present here is intended solely to simplify.
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The similarities in the melodic line A are striking. However, the ceaseless semiquavers
livening up the instrumental background of Sacchini’s aria make evident his more active
writing, even tumultuous at times, that runs throughout the work. Berezovsky instead opts for
a transparent texture that becomes essential when the tenor starts singing.
With regard to texture, Berezovsky maintains this simplicity throughout, while Sacchini
sometimes allows a slightly richer counterpoint to come out, here and there, even using
contrary motions.
Example 3 Sacchini’s end of second statement of lyrics
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Example 4 The same passage in Berezovsky. A6 is held for two more measures, then the melody continues
with a 5-measures long melisma
The simplicity of Berezovsky’s aria can be inferred from his almost total use of perfect chords
and more pronounced diatonicism, whereas Sacchini gives full show to his peculiar harmonic
palette26:
“[Sacchini] often achieved dramatic tension through the use of changing harmonies over a
tonic pedal point or with a sudden change from major to minor.” Also, notice how this third
statement of the lyrics begins on strongly dissonant grounds.
Example 5
26
As outlined above in n. 12.
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The overall result of Berezovsky’s efforts is a rejection of Sacchini’s very personal style in
favor of a more immediate, Italianate style. This is very natural, considering the fact that
Berezovsky had spent the previous fifteen years singing Italian opera, and that Count Orlov
was one of the many Russians who fell in love at that time with that very music27: he would
surely have enjoyed its clear style.
Some new reflections on Berezovsky’s Demofoonte are thus possible, or at least
conjecturable.
The feeble hints of a Florence staging have been eliminated, confining the only definite
staging we know of to Livorno, Carnival 1773. This is actually in line with the overwhelming
majority of Italian operas of that time, which were staged only for one particular occasion
(especially true for operas by less well-known composers).28
Unlinking Berezovsky from the Teatro del Cocomero also invalidates the main hypothesis
surrounding the reason Berezovsky’s arias are to found in the Florence manuscript. I have
proposed instead that they were copied to create a collection of numbers from the three
stagings of Demofoonte held in 1773.29 Without pretending that this is a definitive solution of
this enigma, it is perhaps the most likely suggestion until new evidence is revealed.
Finally, the discovery that at least one of the four arias is a re-working of music by another
composer opens up interesting research and analysis scenarios: in what proportion does
Mentre il cor differ stylistically from the three other arias and the rest of Berezovsky’s output?
Such a question would further advance the understanding of his compositional logics in
reshaping a previous piece; can we trace other similar cases in Berezovsky’s Demofoonte? Is
it possible that Dmitry Bortniansky did the same somewhere in his operas?
Although my contribution has updated current knowledge of Berezovsky’s supposedly
only opera and his own reception in contemporary Italy, it is clear that much remains to be
discovered about him, the time he spent in Italy, and what he composed while there.
27
28
Ritzarev, Eighteenth-Century Russian Music, 116, n.12.
Further confirmation of this custom can be inferred easily by leafing through Sartori, I Libretti, Vol.
VI, 111-39.
29
Ibidem, 290. Berezovsky’s Demofoonte is not listed here because the libretto is not extant.
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